Wicked: For Good will certainly be a huge hit at the box office; however, there’s one thing that fans of the first movie may want to know before walking into the theater.
Directed by Jon M. Chu, Wicked: For Good is the second half of the popular 2003 stage musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman. That musical is loosely based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel, with an emphasis on the “loosely,” all of which is a reimagining of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz book and the accompanying 1939 film adaptation.
What should Wicked fans know before seeing Wicked: For Good?
While this may not come as a huge surprise to those who are familiar with the Wicked musical, fans of the first movie who are not familiar with the source material should know that they’re in for a darker story when stepping into the theater.
This has previously been teased by Chu. He told Entertainment Weekly about the Wicked sequel shortly after the first movie was released back in November 2024, “If Part 1 is about choices, Part 2 is about consequences. Choices are difficult to make, but when you do make those choices, sometimes the result isn’t what you expect it to be. It can be lonely, it can be hard…There’s a lot of soul searching in movie 2. They’re asking, ‘Is this the right decision that you made?’”
That may sound like a natural progression of the story following the events of Wicked; however, Wicked: For Good doesn’t necessarily have the same kind of fun energy that the first movie had. Wicked delighted fans with “Popular,” “Dancing Through Life,” and the jaw-dropping “Defying Gravity,” among other numbers. There are still plenty of songs in Wicked: For Good, though most of them take a sadder, more melodramatic tone.
Which isn’t to say that Wicked: For Good is a complete bummer, as there are still moments of joy to be had. That said, it is worth noting that For Good’s tone is much more serious than the 2024 movie, as the conclusion to this story gets into some heavier subject matter compared to what had previously been covered.
